Restoration of Aussie jeep trailer

[John Mackie]

G-day Mike. thanks for the quick replies. I found a penny and lookad at the roo. on the penny the roos legs are inclined while on the sign the legs are vertical. i think I can pick out the tip of his tail.the trailer is on the back of my truck and is off to the sandblaster tomorrow. I will be away about a week.
I will bring the photos up to date when i get offsider.

[Lang]

The first kangaroo was not like the penny but a deformed sort of rat with a hump on its neck. That is probably what you have. In late 42 they made the penny kangaroo the shape. Same as all Australian military aircraft now have.

Lang

[Lang]

This is the later sign

[Mike Cecil]

Lang,

The Kangaroo shape from the Australian penny was the authorised sign from the outset (1939). How Troops interpreted that in the field was another matter, of course, but also keep in mind that we are dealing with a No.3 or 3A trailer that did not come into existence until 1943.

The original 6 Division sign proposed was a kangaroo surrounded by three Roman 'II' between three boomerangs, each 'II' standing for 2nd AIF, and, when combined, adding to '6' for '6 Div'. The kangaroo in this instance was, as you say: 'sort of a rat with a hump on its neck' and with the legs near-vertical.

But this was immediately rejected and on 7 December 1939, with the simpler kangaroo over a boomerang design suggested and subsequently adopted prior to the departure of the first contingent. The instruction from the MGO was that the 'kangaroo on the Australian Penny should be clearly followed in design and position of jumping with relation to the vertical.' All subsequent authorised 6 Div signs follow this pattern.

Mike C

[Lang]

Mike,

I have trouble reconciling your 1939 date for the penny kangaroo.

I have a copy of all the marking instructions from WW1 to present as you no doubt have.

The only instruction for the whole 1939-45 period for 6 Division showing the Div kangaroo formation design (of course there were many whole of army unit and vehicle marking schemes as they applied to 6 Div which seemed to change daily) is HQ AIF (ME), General Staff Instruction No. 34 12 Jan 42.

This gives all the divisional and minor unit markings for the Australian Army in the Middle East. The template given for 6 Division is the hump-backed rat.

Vehicles certainly carried the penny kangaroo but dare I suggest it is because the official design was lousy and everyone was familiar with the penny design and it became standard by default???

[Mike Cecil]

Lang,

The description in my post (the instruction from the MGO in the last para) is in qoutes: it is a direct quote from the 1939 document, which is accompanied by the authorised sign viz jumping kangaroo as per Aust penny, over a single boomerang.

After that, the majority of authorised formation sign listings (of which there are many) simply state ' Kangaroo over a boomerang', without a diagram.


Mike C

[Lang]

Mike,

I wonder how far the "intention" of senior headquarters in 1939 was passed down to the signwriters in the vehicle workshops? Was there an actual operational instruction created for the units such as the one I quote above from GHQ (ME) and if so did it get ballsed up by some artistic captain producing the instruction and the hump-backed rat appeared.

I have just had a quick look at photos and see the hump-backed rat on vehicles retreating in Greece. I think this is not just an 'interpretation" but following some official instruction.

There is a famous picture of a row of Australian tanks with big kangaroos on the side. These are the penny design but close inspection reveals quite large variations in detail according to the artists' styles.

I still go for the bad design being the official one - as known to the painters, obviously from your information not the original intentions. This was supplanted either by some General saying "What a crappy kangaroo, we didn't want that shape at our meeting in 1939" or the boys just took it upon themselves to produce the accepted Australian national symbol.